25 Refugees Take Long Route Out : Escape: They tell of ominous actions by regime in Baghdad.

A trickle of relieved Westerners fleeing Iraq reached Jordan on Wednesday carrying tales of uncertainty about the status of foreigners left behind.

About 25 travelers, most of them British citizens, arrived in Amman after a long and dusty 10-hour drive from Baghdad. None could confirm reports that Iraq had turned back a convoy of foreigners trying to leave overland during the day.

But they described ominous actions on the part of the Iraqi government that appeared designed to restrict the movements of foreigners in Baghdad--in particular, groups of travelers brought there from Kuwait.

Several travelers said that three hotels--the Palestine, the Rashid and the Melia--have been cleared of guests to make way for the newcomers from Kuwait, which Iraq invaded last Thursday. Telephones were cut off in the three hotels, and the arrivals were segregated by nationality on different floors.

“When we were moved out of our hotel to make way,” recalled John Gai, a Swiss engineer, “I asked the soldiers why. They said that it was not the time to ask.”

As tensions have grown between Iraq and the West, and especially the United States, over the Iraqi takeover of oil-rich Kuwait, fears have arisen that foreigners could become hostages in Iraq. About 500 Americans are in Iraq, U.S. officials say, and about another 3,000 were in Kuwait before the invasion.

Hundreds of Europeans and thousands of Asians and Arab citizens are also in Kuwait and Iraq.

Memories of the hostage-taking in Iran in the late 1970s and the continuing drama of hostages in Lebanon have a special hold on the American imagination.

The travelers who reached Amman on Wednesday had been in contact with various diplomats in Iraq, some of whom had advised them not to try to leave the capital. The borders were closed, the diplomats had said.

However, as the days wore on, some travelers decided to take a chance.

“We heard that some people had left for the frontier and had gotten through,” said Martin Mathias, a German businessman. “We decided to go too. We took taxis to the border and then hitched rides in Jordanian taxis on the other side. Everything went well. The Iraqis were very kind to us.”

There is only one crossing point between Iraq and Jordan, along the single road that joins the two countries across Jordan’s eastern panhandle.

Since last week, visitors to Baghdad have been unable to pin down whether they are free to go. On Saturday, word reached some that Iraqi Airlines had arranged for shuttle buses to take foreigners across the border. But this turned out to be false.

“When we went to see, they told us the buses were for diplomats,” said Johann Lundgren, an engineer from Sweden.

The travelers said that Baghdad appeared to be relatively calm, despite reports of a partial evacuation of women, children and the elderly. Some said they thought more soldiers were on the streets than usual. Gai, the Swiss engineer, said he was awakened by gunfire Tuesday.

“But it turned out someone was celebrating a national holiday,” he said.

Iraqis were taking the crisis largely in stride, some of the Westerners said. “A few friends told me, ‘This is the second war for us. We have been through it all before,’ ” Gai said. The first war referred to was the bloody eight-year conflict with Iran.

For at least one visitor to Baghdad, simple luck played a role in his getting away. Brian Hume, a businessman, had been in Baghdad for a week when the invasion of Kuwait took place. He learned of the trouble while watching TV in a small hotel.

“When the news came across, the manager of the hotel turned the television off,” Hume, 52, recalled. “I don’t think they wanted outsiders to know.”

The next day, Hume and his partner, Mohammed Musa, saw a leaflet ordering women, children and the elderly to flee the capital. The pair decided to leave and visit a business associate in northern Iraq.

“I thought the message was pretty clear. It was time to take a weekend away,” Hume said.

When both returned Monday, they found their business was disrupted by peculiar problems: It was impossible to make a long-distance phone call. A trip they planned to make to Kuwait was derailed because suddenly Kuwaiti currency had been devalued steeply.

With nothing to do, Hume and Musa, who is a Jordanian, decided to catch a taxi to the border. They left at 1 a.m. Tuesday and got to the border at 7:30 in the morning.

“The only time I thought anything was strange was when an Arab came up to me at the border and told me that foreigners could not leave. But my passport had been stamped in only 15 minutes. I said, ‘I’m leaving,’ ” Hume told a reporter.

When he arrived in Amman on Tuesday afternoon, he was greeted as a hero. “People came up to me and said how lucky I was. It was the first time I realized I should have been nervous. In Baghdad, I didn’t think there was any trouble. I hadn’t even called my embassy. I guess ignorance is bliss.”